X-raid Team and INOCEL have joined forces to build a hydrogen-powered rally raider that they hope to run in the 2027 Dakar Rally’s Mission 1000.

Hydrogen fuel cells are still a budding concept, most notably the power source for Extreme H. KH-7 Ecovergy Team, who has won both editions of the Mission 1000 to date, use a hybrid hydrogen cell combined with other sources; in 2026’s case, the truck is a hydrogen-electric hybrid. Meanwhile, Team Les Copains Du Désert is racing the Dakar Classic in a MAN L90 with a hydrogen-diesel solution.

However, a hydrogen prototype car is fairly undeveloped. Guerlain Chicherit’s GCK Motorsport produced a prototype in 2022, though it has yet to compete.

“The concept of the car is novel. It will be the first car with a fuel cell to race at Dakar, proving that the technology is fit for the harshest environment,” INOCEL deputy general manager Charles Boulanger explained to Cross-Country Rally News.

“The layout of the car will be quite unique as well, where we will be able to use a high-power fuel cell with a fast dynamic response, meaning that we will be able to use a smaller battery. Smaller battery means less weight, and less weight means less energy to carry in the vehicle. We’re really hoping that the next year, Mission 1000, where we’ll be showing the car to the world for the first time, will be an unbreaking year to show what is possible, to have a net-zero powertrain in a rally car, to keep the rally scene going but also the rally scene becoming greener and greener in order to preserve the environment that we’re all rallying and love and enjoy.”

X-raid has experience with a variety of cars, marques, and power sources. Their Mini Ultimate program exists in both gasoline and diesel forms, while they also have the Yamaha in the Challenger class and the X-raid Fenic that uses the same platform.

INOCEL is a French company that builds industrial green fuel cells like hydrogen.

If Mission 1000 works out, they hope to field it in the Dakar Rally proper in later years.

“[Mission 1000 is] a good showcase for testing vehicles and testing new technologies,” X-raid boss Sven Quandt commented. “Until now, we always tested everything in real racing on the Dakar. This is the first time that we collaborated with someone to do a hydrogen car. A hydrogen car with a fuel cell is maybe not ideal, but we would like to see how it is because until now, it was always used only with a combustion engine. Mission 1000 gives a good platform to start with, depending on the financing of the project. We have most of it ready and I think it could be in autumn we could be ready with the car.”

For the 2026 Dakar, X-raid is fielding the diesel-based Mini JCW Rally 3.0d for Lionel Baud and Maria Luís Gameiro as well as the petrol-powered 3.0i for Guillaume de Mévius. Rebecca Busi is racing the Fenic.

Featured image credit: Florent Gooden / DPPI / ASO